US developing plan to require foreign visitors to be vaccinated

[Captain Ewok 1,891]

Quote

The Biden administration is developing a plan to require nearly all foreign visitors to the United States to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as part of eventually lifting travel restrictions that bar much of the world from entering the United States, a White House official told Reuters on Wednesday.

 

The White House wants to re-open travel, which would boost business for the airlines and tourism industry, but is not ready to immediately lift restrictions because of the rising COVID-19 case load and highly transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant, the official said.

 

The Biden administration has interagency working groups working "to have a new system ready for when we can reopen travel," the official said, adding it includes "a phased approach that over time will mean, with limited exceptions, that foreign nationals traveling to the United States (from all countries) need to be fully vaccinated."

 

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-us-developing-plan-require-foreign-visitors-be-vaccinated-official-2021-08-04/

[Daisy.Chain 317]

It's not legal to require anyone to take an experimental vaccine. Also, if Biden's administration is soo worried about covid from immigrants, why are the illegal immigrants allowed to cross the border even when positive for covid? Even USC currently have to get the negative covid test prior to entering.

[Mike E 11,739]

But Biden said there would be no vaccine passports! /s

[millefleur 5,046]

I'm curious how this would even work? I imagine that a lot of countries don't even issue vaccine papers in English?

[Joe Kano 327]

You lost me at Biden

[P0907 127]

1 hour ago, millefleur said:

I'm curious how this would even work? I imagine that a lot of countries don't even issue vaccine papers in English?

I think you'll find other countries have been speaking languages other than English for a few years now.

 

In all seriousness, there will be digital systems put in place to verify vaccine certificates just as there is in the EU which the UK and the US are currently working to connect to.

Edited August 5, 2021 by P0907

[millefleur 5,046]

19 minutes ago, P0907 said:

I think you'll find other countries have been speaking languages other than English for a few years now.

I meant if someone were to show up at the border with a vax certificate in Arabic, Russian, Chinese or anything that's not English, how would CBP be able to verify that? That was my point. If someone were to bring a translation of such a certificate, CBP would just have to assume that translation is truthful and valid. Just seems like there is loopholes for forgeries and things like that.

 

I'm a bit confused as to your digital system solution? Here in the US all I got was a paper card showing proof of vax. It has no fancy anti-forgery stuff on it at all, no special inks or other protections and it definitely doesn't contain any digital/biometric info. It's very low tech from what I can see.

[P0907 127]

8 minutes ago, millefleur said:

I'm a bit confused as to your digital system solution? Here in the US all I got was a paper card showing proof of vax. It has no fancy anti-forgery stuff on it at all, no special inks or other protections and it definitely doesn't contain any digital/biometric info. It's very low tech from what I can see.

That's what you got. On the other end, doctors are entering vaccination details into the CDC system with patient data. All someone would need to do is match your name and dates of vaccinations on your card with the corresponding information on the system to prove your vaccination certificate is genuine.

 

As an example, I can log in to my countries EU vaccination system, enter my name, national ID number and the dates of my vaccinations and it will forward me a PDF confirming my vaccination status. If I can do it, POEs and other government agencies here in the US could do it too - if the systems were in place to share international health data.

 

The missing link at the moment is a centralized database or, better yet, specific access to some form of yes/no data end-point on foreign health systems where the US can verify vaccination status of foreign citizens.

Edited August 5, 2021 by P0907

[top_secret 2,414]

California already more or less has the electronic vaccine passport thingy at the state level.  If you were vaccinated in California you can go to https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov and pull up the computer record.  My wife finally got some vaccinated in the Philippines.  There they can get a WHO "Yellow Card" the same as has been used for decades for Yellow Fever vaccine requirements plus it now includes a QR code that can be authenticated online.

[millefleur 5,046]

26 minutes ago, P0907 said:

if the systems were in place to share international health data.

That's the part that seems tricky to me. I can't imagine that something as gigantic as an "international health database" with potentially billions of people's data is something that can be built quickly or cheaply, not to mention diplomacy issues where every country is on board with it and agrees to all the requirements for it. Also, not all vaccines have been approved yet by the WHO, such as Sputnik V. So the whole "vaccine wars" things also puts a damper on it for certain travelers who may not have access to any of the WHO approved vaxes.

[P0907 127]

5 minutes ago, millefleur said:

That's the part that seems tricky to me. I can't imagine that something as gigantic as an "international health database" with potentially billions of people's data is something that can be built quickly or cheaply, not to mention diplomacy issues where every country is on board with it and agrees to all the requirements for it. Also, not all vaccines have been approved yet by the WHO, such as Sputnik V. So the whole "vaccine wars" things also puts a damper on it for certain travelers who may not have access to any of the WHO approved vaxes.

Access to a very simple system hosted by each country's health department which gave a very simple yes/no without revealing other personal data would be the best way to go. Then all CBP would need to know is the appropriate system to use per country to verify the details presented to them.

[millefleur 5,046]

8 minutes ago, P0907 said:

Access to a very simple system hosted by each country's health department which gave a very simple yes/no without revealing other personal data would be the best way to go. Then all CBP would need to know is the appropriate system to use per country to verify the details presented to them.

OK if that's as easy as it is, then I guess it'll be up and running within a few weeks. I personally will maintain my doubts over how quickly and how feasible all of this is.

[P0907 127]

16 minutes ago, millefleur said:

OK if that's as easy as it is, then I guess it'll be up and running within a few weeks. I personally will maintain my doubts over how quickly and how feasible all of this is.

I said the system would be simple, not the process. 

 

[millefleur 5,046]

1 minute ago, P0907 said:

I said the system would be simple, not the process. 

In other words, easier said than done. 😄

[P0907 127]

1 minute ago, millefleur said:

In other words, easier said than done. 😄

It would seem so.